Shift
by Silvervendetta
Summary: She's not your typical hero. She lies, steals, breaks hearts, and blows things up. She's on a mission. A mission that will take her through a web of deceit, pain, and destruction and threaten to destroy the life she's worked so hard to create. And she doesn't care who gets in her way. Not even the ones she loves.
1. Prologue

The little girl was sitting in an alley, shivering next to a dumpster. It was February, and a fine layer of snow still covered the ground. A cold breeze swirled around her and she brought her knees closer to her chest. Her clothes, covered in mud and blood, offered little protection against the chill of the morning. She rubbed her arms, trying to keep her blood moving.

She couldn't remember the last time she had had a real meal. During the winter she had stayed at a local homeless shelter, but when the people who ran it realized her parents were not among the other patrons she had been forced to flee. She was very bright for all her nine years. She occasionally stole food from stores, but fear of being caught forced her to keep moving. Running. It was all she had known for the past five months, which in her mind seemed like an eternity

Exhausted, she rested her head on her knees. Come nightfall, she would take refuge in one of the giant pine trees in the park. It was not an ideal bed, but it kept her relatively safe and off the cold ground. She dozed off and started dreaming. Her dreams quickly turned into nightmares of the place she had left behind.

* * *

_She crouched behind the old gray couch, listening to her parents screaming at each other. Her father had come home drunk again, and had started taking his rage out on his family and various pieces of furniture. This was not a rare occurrence, and the little girl had learned to stay out of the way until he finally passed out, which was what she was waiting for him to do now._

_He was pacing the hall, screaming and accusing his wife of infidelity. With every step he seemed to become even more enraged. Then he suddenly burst into the den where she was hiding, waking up the infant who had been sleeping in the crib in the corner by the window. The infant wailed, and he started for it._

_"I won't have someone else's brat living under my roof!" He smashed the side of the crib, sending splinters flying. Some of them hit the baby, causing her to cry even harder. The drunk man raised his fist, poised to strike. Not being able to take it any longer, the little girl leapt up from her hiding place._

_Something had changed inside the girl. It was a stirring of a powerful force, a strength born of fear and rage. The power flowed outward, consuming her entire body. Her body started changing, and her childhood ended abruptly._

_Her teeth sharpened into fangs, her nails into long, curved claws. Her dark hair soon covered her fair skin, and her freckled face twisted into a snarl. Her green eyes, once so innocent, glowed with anger. The creature inside her had been unleashed. There was no taming it now._

_Her father stared at her. Growling, she walked closer. He swung at her and missed. "Filthy mutant! You don't belong here either!". He grabbed her by the neck and began choking her._

_The rage inside her hit its final breaking point. Wrenching away, she lunged forward until her teeth connected with his shoulder. As she tore down she could feel the warm blood filling up her mouth, but she didn't let go. Her claws shredded his arms, and she kicked him viciously. When he went limp, she dropped him and stared down in horror and shock._

_Her mother was crying. When the little girl started to approach her, she just yelled at her to get out because she wasn't safe there. Confused, the little girl ran outside._

_As her body began to revert back to its normal form, she heard sirens in the distance. Panic filled her mind. Her parents had never been fond of cops, and they had passed that fear onto their daughter. She fled into the woods, not knowing where she was going or what she was going to do. The only thing she could think to do was to run. And so she ran._

_She ran until her lungs threatened to collapse and her legs felt like cement, her clothes were shredded by thorns and her limbs were covered in scratches. She ran until the woods turned into fields, and the fields into a city. But no matter how much or how fast she ran, she couldn't get those memories out of her mind. Her hands, covered in blood that wasn't hers. Her sister's cries and her mother's screams. And those words. Filthy mutant. Monster. An infinite loop of nightmares she didn't understand. So she kept running, hoping to find a way to erase them. A way to make her free. And a place she was loved._

* * *

Footsteps approached her. She cautiously lifted her head, praying it wasn't a cop. She didn't think she had the energy to run. She moved behind the dumpster, hoping the stranger hadn't seen her. Then a voice spoke to her.

"It's okay. I won't hurt you. You can come out." She peered around the edge of the dumpster. A lanky boy a few years older than her stood there. Shaggy hair covered most of his face, but she could see that he had kind brown eyes. He reached out his hand to her. "I'm Kite. You look hungry. Why don't we go get something to eat?"

She stared at him, curious. She hadn't heard kind words in quite some time. Was she imagining things? Cautiously she crawled out and stood up. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her of how hungry she was. The boy was still smiling at her. Taking a deep breath, she took his hand and followed him.


	2. Chapter 1

_14 years later_

It had once been a shoe factory, or so she had been told. During the Great Depression its owners had gone bankrupt and abandoned the place. Filthy and falling apart in various places, it really should have been razed years ago. But bureaucratic red tape had left the place undisturbed for decades, and for that Stella was glad. The Hollow, as it was called, was like her second home.

Broken glass covered the pavement wherever there weren't weeds sprouting. The only sign of the place's true purpose was a small string of lights that led down a dank, cobweb-covered stairwell into the basement of the building. Stella smiled when she saw the familiar old door with posters and flyers tacked all over it. Above it was a sign that read "Fight at your own risk". She walked inside.

The entire basement had been refurbished into an illegal bar. It was a very popular hangout for mutants with its cage-fighting and energetic atmosphere. There was no police squad in New York brave enough to go looking for a bunch of drunk mutants itching for a fight, so the establishment had remained undisturbed for years. Already it was beginning to fill up with people. Stella joined the crowd at the bar closest to the cage.

Today was the biggest match of the month. Many fighters would enter the cage to take on each other in an all-out no-holds-barred brawl. The last fighter left standing would win a sizable cash prize. She didn't really need the money, but she loved the thrill she got in the cage. It was of the few things that kept her going.

A redheaded guy appeared next to her, grinning broadly. "You're going to dinner with me afterwards, right?" Stella smirked and threw him a mischievous glance. "Depends on how horribly you do this time, Justin. Can't be seen with someone who's covered in bruises, you know. People will talk." Justin's grin grew even wider. "Well we'll just have to see, won't we?" He winked at her and sauntered away, whistling.

When she entered the cage, there were already at least thirty other fighters lined up around the walls. The crowd in the bar was in a frenzy. They wanted to see blood, and Stella was sure they would get their wish.

The announcer picked up the microphone. "Welcome to another night of mayhem at the Hollow! Fighters, medical services are standing by, but please try not to kill each other, as we're running out of places to dump the bodies. Remember to place your bets at the nearest counter. Now let the chaos begin!"

All at once the room became a scene of utter chaos as the combatants threw themselves at each other. Dodging an electric blast, Stella ran up the wall of the cage, shifting into the form of a huge black cat as she did so. Back-flipping off the top, she hurled herself downwards, colliding with a speedster in midair. She picked herself up and zoomed around the cage, building up momentum until she slammed into a group of fighters and sent them flying. She weaved in and out of the mess of people sprawled across the floor. The medics sure were having a hard time keeping up tonight.

A fireball hit her shoulder, and she fell down. Before she could get back up a mob had been pile on top of her. Gritting her teeth, she clawed her way through before she could stand up again in her human form. She jumped clear of the group.

Someone hit her from behind but she jumped clear and twisted around, grabbing her attacker and throwing them to the ground. Before they could stand she had kicked their kneecap and run off again.

She was suddenly engulfed in a mass of flames and smoke and fell to her knees. Shifting into a tiger form, she tried to slink out but was again attacked by several fighters at once. The blood was pounding in her ears and she could hear the crowd roaring over the cackling of the flames.

She continued to wrestle with the last of her opponents. She could feel their breath hot on her neck. Grinning wickedly, she quickly flipped her opponent over and pinned them before stomping brutally on their arm. Fighting dirty was common in the cage, and she felt no qualms about using it to her advantage. Especially when she realized she had been fighting Justin. Yeah, he wouldn't be getting that second date any time soon. Not that she was sure he would want it now.

After collecting her winnings, she wandered over to the bar and ordered a drink. She soon became lost in her thoughts, not paying attention to the commotion that was going on around her. She wasn't at all fazed when a fight broke out and someone was sent flying into the rafters, bringing down chunks of old wood into the center of the room and earning a few peeved shouts from the proprietor. She barely noticed when someone took the stool next to her and ordered a round of beers. Musing and nursing her lager, it took her several moments to realize when the stranger beside her attempted to get her attention. She looked up and studied him curiously.

He had a scruffy beard and dark hair styled back in a way she had never seen before. With black jeans, jacket, and muddy combat boots, he blended right in with the shadows and smoky atmosphere of the bar. Kite would have frowned in disgust and called him sleazy, but Stella found him oddly fascinating.

"You're a mutant, aren't you?" His voice was deep and husky, like that of a chronic smoker, but not unpleasant. Stella found the question a bit odd as a pickup line, but she shrugged it off. "Most people here are. Why?" "Just curious. That was a great fight tonight. I'm Logan, by the way." "My name's Stella. You new here?"

"Yeah, heard about this place from a friend and figured I should check it out. I thought the cops had shut down most of the fighting rings in this part of the city." Stella smirked. "They wouldn't touch this place even if they could find it, we have that sort of reputation you know."

Logan's brow furrowed. "They can't find it? I thought they were developing a program to hunt down mutants." Stella set down her glass and grinned at him. "Believe it or not, I've managed to develop a device that can mask a mutant's presence completely. When I installed a bigger version in this place, it became practically invisible. It's a haven for all sorts of people now."

Stella chuckled a bit when Logan's eyes widened. She grinned wickedly and winked at him. "There's another tournament tomorrow night. You should enter it." She tossed a few bills on the counter and disappeared into the crowd. She liked to keep people wondering, and she had an appointment to keep. Logan stared after her, both intrigued and bewildered by the strange girl he had just met. He had a feeling something was up with her, and whatever it was, it was just getting started.

A/N: This is my first real story, and I'm not very good at writing action scenes. Suggestions would be lovely. :)


	3. Chapter 2

Professor Xavier met Logan in Cerebro's room. "What is it you wished to search for?" He glanced at Logan briefly as he picked up the helmet. Logan shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched against the wall.

"I met a girl last night who claimed to have invented a device that could mask a person's mutant status. I want to know if she was telling the truth." He gave Charles the address of the bar and watched as he scanned the area.

After a while he removed the device and shook his head. "Extraordinary," he murmured. "I'm not picking up any traces of mutant activity within a five mile radius of the building, and that's a pretty populated area. It would seem that your new friend has quite a talent for technology... What did you say her name was?"

While Logan was responding, they were interrupted by the arrival of Hank McCoy and Scott Summers. "Have you had any progress on tracing the Spooks?" Scott asked the professor, completely ignoring Logan, as usual.

"The Spooks?" Logan asked Hank.

"They're a group of thieves who seem to be targeting less than scrupulous businesses and laboratories and stealing equipment from them. So far they've managed to evade being captured, or even sighted. The police are at a loss to explain how they're doing it. Scott thinks they might be mutants. If they are mutants, we should stop them before the public gets wind of it and there's a storm of anti-mutant hysteria." Logan nodded and looked back towards the professor.

"I haven't found anything around the targeted buildings that would suggest a mutant's presence. Why are you so certain that they're mutants?" Charles questioned.

Scott shrugged and rubbed the back of his head. "Just a hunch, I guess." He glanced at Logan, as if he had just realized he was there. "Forge, Beast and I are trying to put together a map of areas the Spooks are likely to strike next. If we can figure out their next target, we might be able to intercept them. We're short a few team members, though."

"I'll see if I can rustle up a few extra hands." Logan stated.

"Very good. And I'll look into this girl's background more. She could prove to be a very valuable resource, if we could get her to work with us." Charles looked at Logan pointedly. Logan smiled. He had no doubt that the professor was right. Tonight was going to be fun.

_

Eva sat on the edge of her bed, staring across the room at her new roommate. After a brief introduction by the guidance counselor, Miss Pryde, the new girl had been left to unpack her meager belongings. Now she lay on her bed, studying a faded photograph. Bored, Eva spoke up. "What's that?" She didn't really care, she just wanted to fill the silence.

The new girl, who was named Sophie, twitched a little. "Just a picture of my sister." She put it down quickly.

"Your sister? What's she like?" Eva questioned, sitting down next to her. She had become determined to make friends with this girl. Most of her other classmates simply ignored her. In a school for the stranger outcasts of society, it was hard to stand out.

Sophie bit her lip, before speaking very hesitantly. "I wish I knew. She died when I was a baby."

Eva gave her an encouraging smile. "Rough break. My family died a few years ago in an accident, so I know how you feel."

Sophie's eyes widened. "You're an orphan too?!"

Eva nodded. "I'm glad I found someone else my age who understands what that's like. I think some other kids here might be too, but they don't really talk to me." She sighed.

"You're lonely." Sophie said this plainly, like she was commenting on the weather.

Eva stared at her, shocked. "How did you know that?"

Sophie managed a thin smile. "It's what I do. I'm an empath," she explained.

Eva grinned again. "That's cool. All I can do is levitate a little. She showed her, before purposely falling backwards onto the bed. Sophie laughed for what seemed to be the first time in years.

The girls talked for quite some time about everything that crossed their minds. They were both ecstatic to find they had so much in common. Finally, though, the subject of family came up again. "So why do you keep your sister's picture with you all the time? No offense," she quickly added, seeing Sophie become a little embarrassed and ashamed.

"Promise you won't tell anyone or think I'm crazy?" Her voice was very quiet now, her timid personality creeping back up.

"Of course!" Eva promised. Now she was almost bursting with curiosity. Sophie took a deep breath and began:

"When I was an infant, my father was brutally murdered, and my sister disappeared. The police thought my mother was responsible, but she never confessed, and the murder was so gruesome, she was put in a psychiatric hospital. They never found my sister's body, either. They just assumed that she was killed and dumped somewhere." Sophie paused and shuddered. Eva gave her a comforting pat on the back.

"You don't have to continue," she told her gently. Sophie simply shook her head and went on.

"Ever since I was little, I've always been able to sense other people's emotions. Adults always thought I was simply very perceptive, but I knew it was something else." She picked the photo up again. "For some reason, I've never really believed that my sister is dead. I've always has this feeling that she's out there somewhere. It's like I can feel her presence in my head all the time. I tried telling people, but they just said I was imagining it or something. The last time I tried, they thought I was delusional so they put me through therapy and on medication for a while."

She looked at Eva worriedly. "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?"

Eva shook her head. "No, but if it is real, maybe the professor can help you. I've heard he can read minds and stuff." Relieved, Sophie thanked her new friend for understanding.

Then the bell for lunch rang, and Eva took her to her favorite place to hideout and eat, in the shady branches of a tree outside the garage. It was so tall no one ever bothered to look up at the top. Eva had found it to be the perfect refuge, and with the use of her powers and a bit of camouflage, she had managed to craft a makeshift treehouse. It was small, but Sophie loved it. As she was eating her lunch and gazing out over the mansion's massive lawn, she felt a sudden sense of belonging. The feeling warmed her, and for once, she let herself be happy.


	4. Chapter 3

Stella fidgeted uncomfortably in her position outside the cage. Logan's match was next and she didn't want to miss it, but something else was weighing heavily on her mind. She checked her phone again for the fifteenth time that night. Beside her, her friend Melanie Campbell, otherwise known as Riot, shook her head impatiently.

"It'll get done, okay? Now put the stupid phone away and place your bet already, the fight's about to begin!" She urged, tossing her pink and black hair back dramatically and fixating her eyes on the cage. Stella sighed and handed a few bills to the bookie.

"One hundred on the new guy." He raised a quizzical eyebrow at her, but wrote her name down with her bet. Stella turned her attention back to the fight.

Logan's opponent was almost twice his size, a beefy regular with an unbeaten record. His torso and arms were covered in tattoos, some of which he was rumored to have received in prison. There was a reason they called him Brutus the Brutal. Under the dim lights of the arena, he was even more menacing. Cracking his knuckles, he stared down at Logan, his eyes like tiny black orbs. The general consensus in the crowd was that Logan didn't stand a prayer. Stella wasn't so convinced, however.

When the bell rang, Brutus struck Logan with what should have been a jaw-shattering blow. Much to his and the crowd's astonishment, however, Logan didn't appear fazed in the slightest. He grinned back at Brutus, encouraging him to hit him again. And he did, several times, each with the same crushing force. Logan didn't seem at all bothered though; in fact, he appeared slightly bored.

When Brutus began showing signs of slowing down, Logan made his move. He somehow managed to flip Brutus on his back, pinning him down with one foot on his neck. Despite the fact that Logan appeared to be only a third of his weight, Brutus looked like he was about to choke. When he tapped out, there was a roar of confusion throughout the arena. The only person who didn't appear at all shocked by the outcome of the fight was Stella, who calmly collected her share of the bet money and returned to the bar.

When Logan joined her there a few minutes later, she was casually sipping a glass of vodka while examining something on her phone. She glanced up at him, smiling and putting her phone away. Logan instantly sensed something was wrong, but chose to ignore it. Ordering a beer, he thought about what the professor had said, wondering if he could really trust this girl he barely knew. Then he decided it was worth the risk.

He studied her carefully, beer in hand. "About that device you said you made... would you be willing to sell a version of it to me?" Stella downed the last of her drink before answering. "Depends. Why do you need one?" Logan hesitated for moment, then decided it didn't matter. "I work at a school for mutants. Since we're basically hiding in plain sight, we're rather vulnerable to our enemies if they find us. It would be nice to be able to protect our students as much as possible." Stella considered this, then pulled out a business card from her pocket and handed it to him. "Send someone to my office tomorrow and we'll see if we can work something out." Logan thanked her, glancing at the card as he tucked it into his jacket pocket. Then something occurred to him when he saw her name printed on it.

"You're Senator Sterling's daughter, aren't you? I thought there was something familiar about you."

Stella bit her lip, then nodded. "I'm lucky my family supports mutants, but I can't risk their safety because of me. My brother's a respected doctor at one of the best hospitals in the state, not to mention my father's political career. So I design and build technology, staying out of the public's eye as much as possible. The device helps me keep my mutant identity a secret."

Logan nodded understandingly, then decided to press his luck. "You spend a lot of time in places like this, then. Have you heard anything about that new criminal gang, the Spooks? I've heard they might be mutants." Stella's eyes flickered a bit, but she kept her composure.

Lowering her voice she whispered, "They're supposed to be extremely powerful and dangerous, and possibly dealing on the black market. But since no one apparently knows who they are, they could be anywhere. You have to be careful. People like that tend to have a lot of equally nasty friends with a blood lust. You should watch who you're talking to about them." Logan wasn't too concerned, having dealt with murderous thugs many times before, but he didn't tell her that.

"If you were one of those guys, who would be your next target?"

Stella's eyes widened. "You're not planning on going after them, are you?" She sounded panicked.

"I can take care of myself alright. No need to worry about it." That wasn't really what was bothering Stella, but she kept that quiet.

"Well, there's bound to be a connection between what they're stealing," she suggested vaguely.

Logan agreed, then decided to change the topic, noting how worried she had become. "Where'd you learn how to fight?"

She shrugged. "My father insisted that I take a few martial arts courses, and I practice with some mutant friends of mine, not to mention the people here. What about you? I don't think Brutus was expecting whatever it was you did to him today."

Logan chuckled. "I trained with ninjas in Japan. And I have this." He showed her his claws, which reflected the lights above them.

Stella was impressed, then suddenly frowned, leaning forward slightly to examine the adamantium closer. "Let me guess, Hydra's work?" Her voice sounded rather bitter and disgusted. Logan was surprised, but he confirmed it. He didn't like talking about his time at the lab, but something about Stella made her seem almost like a kindred spirit, like she somehow understood exactly what he had gone through.

"How'd you know about that anyway? That program wasn't exactly public." His eyes narrowed.

Stella stared at the floor, her eyes teeming with sadness. "I've done a lot of research on them. You're not the only one Hydra's hurt." Before Logan could ask her what she meant her phone rang and she excused herself, slipping out into the shadows of the night once again.

Logan stared after her, dumbfounded. It seemed this just kept leaving him with more questions than answers. He liked a challenge, though. He had gotten what he came for, and after a few more drinks he headed back to the mansion to report his findings to the professor and do some research of his own.


	5. Chapter 4

Doctor McCoy stared at the girl sitting across the desk from him, wondering how this could possibly be the same person in the file he had read. How could this slender, catlike figure with dark eyes that showed both amusement and power, be the same sad, mysterious waif taken in by the Sterlings fourteen years earlier? Her voice was smooth and calculating, a trait no doubt picked up from her adoptive father. There was no sign of fear or hesitation as she spoke to him, a fact that both warmed him and piqued his interest. For such an enigmatic person, she seemed rather... normal, if a person with a history like hers could be referred to as such.

From what he had been able to piece together from the news articles he had found regarding Stella, she had always been a rather bright, if unusual child, amplified by her apparent lack of a past before she was found by Kite Sterling in a Manhattan alley. She had no name, no identification, and no memories. Unable to locate any leads on her identity in the international database for missing children, the Sterlings were named her legal guardians after a lengthy legal process. Their willingness to take in a street rat had surprised many people, but hadn't hurt the senator's career; in fact, some took it as a sign of his open-heartedness. In any case, Stella surely benefited from having such a warm and stable home environment, as it allowed her talents to blossom.

Although no one was sure of her exact age, a fact no doubt hampered by her status as a shapeshifter, Stella proved to be rather intelligent and adept with technology of all sorts. After graduating from high school at approximately seventeen, she obtained a degree from Culver University a few years later and from there landed a job at New Horizons Labs, designing state-of-the-art medical technology, a rather lucrative job for a twenty-three year old. But she had earned it, if her ability to create such a brilliant device at a young age that enabled her mutant status to remain hidden for so many years was anything to go by.

"The device can be adapted to cover different radii, and covers heat signatures and heartbeats, specific DNA sequences, among other things. If you connect it with a building's security system, the only people to be able detect those things will be the ones inside it. It will become virtually impossible to track its occupants- even more so if they wear the discreet bracelet version," she was explaining to him, showing him a holographic model of a building protected by such a device and the cuff on her wrist that she said could be personalized for camouflage.

Hank had been suitably impressed, as he knew the other X-men would be. His only task now was to convince Stella to sell them the device, as it would no doubt prove to be an invaluable resource if the school was ever attacked again, which it most likely would be. Xavier had told him that money was no obstacle; the device was that important. Hank wasn't sure that money was what Stella was after, but he had to ask.

Stella closed her eyes and clasped her hands under her chin as she carefully contemplated her response, the sleeves of her blouse tugged down just enough to reveal the edges of her tattoos, another thing that surprised the doctor. When she opened her eyes again, her green eyes had darkened slightly, and her voice became more serious.

"The most important thing to me is protecting my family, so my anonymity must be preserved. I don't want them to be reviled because of me, as I'm sure you understand. The only other condition is this." She pulled out a sheet of paper from her desk drawer and handed it over. Hank scanned it briefly and raised his eyebrows.

"These are some pretty rare ingredients. May I ask what you intend to do with them?" Hank gave her a quizzical look, having no idea what she could possibly want with azurthiocite, which he had only ever heard of being used in some gels, although it was a bit unstable. Then again, Stella was an engineer, she probably knew what she was doing. He hoped.

She grinned at him, revealing a rather pointed set of canines. "Just conducting a little personal experiment. I haven't been able to obtain those items on my own as of yet, but I'm sure you have your own resources." Hank nodded, knowing it wouldn't be too hard to get the materials with Charles's connections. He stood up and shook Stella's hand, agreeing to inform the professor of the deal and get the materials Stella requested so they could make the exchange. Stella gave him one of the cuffs as a gesture of goodwill, and he thanked her profusely.

As he was leaving, he got an uneasy feeling that the meeting had gone a little too well. Why would someone like Stella, who cared about her privacy a great deal, reveal the existence of her device upon her very first meeting with Logan, a perfect stranger she supposedly knew nothing about, and why had she agreed to the trade so easily? Something was very off here, but he shook the uneasiness away, though he decided to follow up on his suspicions when the transaction was complete. For now, he would just keep a sharp eye out for any other unusual behavior in his teammate's new-found friend. He hoped he was wrong; Stella might have made an excellent addition to the team.

_

A tall figure bent over a computer console, a lock of sheer white hair curling over his forehead. The room was dark, only illuminated by the screen in front of him. His body was tense as he tapped away on the keyboard. When a shadowy form suddenly appeared behind him, he didn't even bother to look up before he spoke.

"I hope you're right about this." His voice was cold, but there was no menace behind his words.

"It was necessary to move forward with the program. Besides, by the time they figure it out, it will be too late to stop us." The other figure spoke calmly, with no sign of fear. Moving forward to stand beside him, the faint light outlined their distinctively feminine features. The man gave a half-smile, his reddish-pink eyes showing a flicker of warmth.

"The cure is coming along well. With a few more tweaks, we should be able to start testing it on the rats soon. We just need the extra serum to complete the formula. Have you spoken with the supplier about our next target?"

The girl nodded, pulling out a map and laying it on the computer desk. "This warehouse here stores a variety of old rejected auto parts from the car factory down the street. What they want with them is anyone's guess, but our objective to is obtain several motors of this model." She showed him the slip of paper she had written the request on earlier, and his eyebrows shot up, but he didn't bother to remark on the fact that he seriously doubted there were more than a hundred of those old motors left worldwide. His companion probably already knew that, and she had a penchant for accomplishing the seemingly impossible.

"Have you alerted the others?"

The girl nodded. "We'll strike there in two weeks, once our other transaction is complete." With that, she walked to the workshop at the back of the makeshift lab and soon the room was filled with the sound of her blowtorch and hammer. She had never been one for a lot of conversation.

The man smiled as he watched the girl crouched beside the old motorcycle, lovingly restoring it to its former glory. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration, but he could see that they still held so much pain behind their cold mask. He wished he could take the pain away, but he would just have to wait for their mission to be fulfilled so she would have a chance at being happy again. Then perhaps he could have a life again, preferably with her in it.

For now he busied himself with putting together the order she had requested. She had given her assistant the night off, so it was just the two of them in their underground hideout. He didn't mind the extra work, though. Not if it meant he could spend just a while longer with the girl who had saved his life before she risked it again for sake of the other people she cared about. Once again he found himself wishing he had a family and someone else to care about him, that he hadn't been declared dead from a freak 'accident' five years before, and that he wasn't entirely dependent on this girl for his survival. Sighing, he turned back to his work, preparing himself for another long night.


	6. Chapter 5

It was a beautiful morning two weeks later when Stella came to the mansion to help install the device. The other X-men were still dubious about Stella's trustworthiness, but with the Brotherhood on the move again, they couldn't afford to pass up any opportunity to strengthen their defenses. So they sent the students outside to keep curious eyes away from where they were working and used the excuse of a routine security upgrade to avoid raising alarm, remembering well what had happened the last time the mansion had been attacked. If the students learned how anxious their professors really were, especially with anti-mutant hysteria growing in the wake of the Spook attacks and the pro-mutant legislation Congress was attempting to pass, they might never settle down by finals week. The last thing they needed was nervous parents withdrawing their children from the school or someone like Quentin Quire to use the unrest as an excuse to attempt another coup.

Wolverine's defense training class was practicing camoflauge and ambush techniques in the woods. Sophie and Eva were partnered together again, trying to stay hidden as much as possible. Logan had promised a free pass to the last group to get caught, and those were rare currency in his class. The girls picked a spot close enough to the mansion that they were still in shouting range if need be, but far enough that they figured no one would bother looking for them in their chosen hiding spot, a tiny rock overhang near the stream. Eva pulled a few bushes in front of them and they crouched down, keeping a sharp eye out for any sign of the unfortunate souls Logan had found first and designated as 'it'.

They hadn't spoken in over half an hour, picking at the grass and dirt around them and watching the clouds roll overhead. Suddenly Sophie felt her head start spinning rapidly. She could feel the presence in her mind becoming even more active, but she couldn't control the flood of emotions that quickly overwhelmed her. Disoriented, she slumped over as her senses began to blur together and her mind grew even foggier. She could feel Eva panicky shaking of her shoulder, trying to get her to sit up, but she couldn't move or respond. Frightened, Eva quickly blew on her emergency whistle, alerting Logan that there was a problem.

Hearing the shrill whistle, Logan rushed to the girls, finding Sophie shaking on the ground and Eva visibly freaked out. Cursing under his breath, he blew his own whistle to bring class to an abrupt end. Picking Sophie up, he quickly brought both girls to the infirmary where Dr. McCoy took one look at the half-unconscious girl and summoned Professor Xavier. Sophie was showing signs of a psychic attack.

The Professor carefully probed Sophie's mind, but came up with more questions than answers. Sophie had been perfectly fine until about ten minutes earlier. She had no medical history of such incidents, she wasn't particularly stressed, her ability appeared to be under control, and he didn't see much of a reason for someone to target just her when no other empath or psychic appeared to be at all affected. The more he thought about it, the more perplexed he became. Then Eva volunteered something then only deepened the mystery.

"She told me she has this thing in her head, like another person, that she can feel all the time even when she's alone. Do you think that could have anything to do with it?"

The adults all stared at her. Sure, Sophie's medical record had stated that she had at one point been treated for apparent delusions, but they assumed that was only a misinformed psychiatrist confusing her ability with mental instability. Nothing she had ever said or done had suggested otherwise, and as Charles didn't make a practice of reading his student's minds without just cause, he had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss. He didn't think she really was crazy, of course, but what could this strange presence possibly be, if not another part of her ability?

Sophie slept for several hours in the cool darkness of the med-lab, the strain of the overwhelming emotions exhausting her. She not rest peacefully, however. Her dreams were wrought with horrible visions of being watched, hunted down and having something terrible done to her mind until she finally woke up, screaming.

As much as she wanted to brush it off as a ghastly nightmare, something about the images she had seen seemed familiar to her somehow, like she was remembering something she had forgotten long ago. She sat on the cot in the dark for a while, wondering about the dream, until a strange and uneasy thought realization came to her. She gasped when she made the connection between what happened to her earlier, the presence in her head, and her creepy dream. Sophie practically flew to her room, scared to the core, but knowing she would never sleep until she finally solved this mystery which grew even more bizarre by the minute.

Because now she knew it wasn't her in her dream at all. It was her sister, the one she had lost so many years before. And she was still alive.


	7. Chapter 6

Sophie didn't really have a plan in mind as she quickly rummaged around her meager belongings for her thin wallet and a few bus tokens. She had never really been around the city by herself before, and she had no idea what she was going to do once she found whatever the presence in her head was beckoning her towards. She would have thought that she would be terrified to be doing something like this, but somehow she only felt calm, and a bit excited.

She managed to sneak out of the mansion without being spotted, but she knew she had to hurry before anyone realized she was gone. She walked half a mile to the downtown where she could catch a bus, instinctively getting on the one that would take her in the right direction. She changed buses a few times before she got to where she was being called to.

A jolt of fear suddenly shot through her as she realized that the source of the pull was in a darkened dead-end alley in a shadier area of Manhattan, at close to two o'clock in the morning. The streets were dead quiet, and fog rolled through the areas illuminated by the few streetlights that weren't broken like an omen in a horror movie. Fighting every nerve in her body that was screaming for her to run, she slowly walked down the alley.

The sides of the alley were lined with trash, overflowing from a dumpster that looked like it hadn't been emptied in months. There was no smell though, a fact which added to her unease. As she stopped to take a better look at her surroundings she noticed a light at the end of the alley, shining on the bottom half of the fire escape on one of the buildings. She walked closer, drawn to the light, then suddenly freezing and swallowing hard when she realized that someone was standing on the fire escape.

She didn't move for several moments. The air seemed to get slightly chillier as she took deep breaths and worked up the courage to walk the rest of the way up to the fire escape. She stood at the bottom, looking up at the shadowy figure on the platform above her.

When the figure finally spoke, it caught her off guard. The voice was smooth and gentle, almost reassuring.

"You're even braver than I expected, Sophie."

Sophie blinked. So apparently the stranger knew who she was. Great. That only left her with about a million more questions.

"It's you, isn't it?" The stranger didn't respond right away, making Sophie a little more nervous. Then they slowly turned around, moving down a few steps to face her, eyes still hidden by the shadows.

"You're only fourteen, aren't you? So am I."

That statement surprised Sophie. She could have sworn the strange woman in front of her was at least several years older than her. What was she talking about?

Sensing her confusion, the stranger gestured around her. "My life started here, in this alley. The first thing I can remember is huddling behind that dumpster, freezing. I knew nothing about my past, until I discovered you."

The woman walked the rest of the way down the steps, standing in front of Sophie. In the eerie light she could see that she was dressed entirely in gray, with a mask covering most of her face. Her eyes were very calm, but seemed to hide something Sophie couldn't recognize. It was at that moment that she realized she couldn't actually sense the woman's emotions. Frightened, she took a step backwards.

"There's no need to be afraid, Sophie. I know how curious and confused you must be, but all will be revealed in time." Pausing, she glanced over Sophie's shoulder, than back at her.

"I'm afraid I must leave now, they're coming for you." She turned to leave, but Sophie stopped her.

"Wait! How do I know you're really my sister?" She was positive this woman was the one in her dream and the presence seemed to agree that they were all one and the same, but she had to be sure.

The woman smiled behind her mask. "I thought you might ask that. Here." She handed her a small box, then suddenly disappeared into the shadows of the night.

Sophie opened the box and gasped. She fumbled in her pocket for the photograph and stared at it hard, glancing back and forth between it and the box with wide eyes.

The photo was actually a school picture of her sister taken a few months before her apparent death. She was wearing a striped sundress, and looked very much like a typical little kid. It would have taken a very observant person to notice that she was also wearing a beaded necklace with her name in tiny little blocks on it. It would also have taken someone with a keen eye for details to notice that the necklace had a small charm of a bird attached to it, or to remember that while the necklace had been found after her disappearance, the raven pendant never was.

The one lying in the box in her hand was identical to the one in the photo. So either this woman was a world-class stalker, or Sophie was actually sane.

While she was trying to put these odd facts together in her mind she heard footsteps approaching her. She quickly shoved the box in her pocket and turned around to see the X-men.

"Sophie?! We've been looking all over for you! What are you doing here?"

Scott sounded really concerned, and Sophie suddenly realized that not only did she make them worry by sneaking off after dark, she also probably looked crazy because she was standing in a darkened dead-end alley by herself.

Before she could reply, however, Scott's cellphone rang. He listened briefly, then hung up and turned to the other X-men.

"Storm, I need you to take Sophie back to the mansion and then meet us back on Factory Street. I just got a tip that the Spooks have finally been sighted."


	8. Chapter 7

Factory Street was deserted. The old junkyard was surrounded by barbed wire fence, which didn't serve much of a purpose as only those seeking to get tetanus ever ventured through the weeds and rubble to get to the dozen or so junked cars and parts scattered around the lot. Tonight however, several enterprising individuals were busy scouring the area intently, filling crates with various old parts.

"Who in their right mind wants this crap, anyway? Venn must be losing it," grumbled one hooded figure to another. "Shh, she's loaded, remember? Who cares what she's up to, as long as she pays us." His friend glanced nervously into the shadows, as if expecting something to jump out and attack him at any moment.

Suddenly a low, sharp whistle cut through the air. The hooded workers quickly finished packing their crates and then vanished, as if into thin air. The street was suddenly deadly quiet.

The X-men arrived within a few seconds of the hasty departure of the shadowy gang. They immediately searched the area, but came up empty. "You sure this is the right place, Cyke? All I smell is oil and rust." Logan grunted, glaring into the darkness.

"Our source said they saw suspicious figures around here less than twenty minutes ago. There must be some-" He broke off his sentence abruptly.

Two glowing eyes suddenly loomed in front of them. "Nice night, isn't it? A shame my friends had to leave so early. I'm sure you would have loved to meet them." A feminine voice purred.

Scott quickly regained his composure. "Who are you? What do you want?!" He demanded, taking a step forward and raising a hand to his visor.

The voice chuckled darkly. "You can call me Vendetta. As for what I want… well, you'll just have to wait and see. Although I suppose it would only be fair if I gave you a hint." Suddenly a small object landed at Scott's feet. With a rush of air, the stranger was gone.

Scott leaned down and picked up the object and held it up to the light. At first glance, it appeared to be a normal flash drive. That was until he turned it over and saw something that made him suck in his breath.

It was the logo for HYDRA.

* * *

"You did WHAT?!" The pink-eyed man stared at the girl in front of him in horror.

"Relax. I simply 'informed' them of what HYDRA did, and what they're planning, so they understand it's for their own best interest to stay out of my way."

"But if they know why you're doing it, they'll figure out who you are! I thought you wanted to protect your family?" He started pacing, wondering if his savior had finally gone insane, or if she had always been that way and it was just now becoming obvious.

"They were bound to figure out anyway. They won't attack them- on the contrary, they'll do everything they can to make sure no one else gets hurt. And I plan on taking down HYDRA before they can even try."

He stopped pacing and looked at her again. Yep, she had definitely gone nuts. "By yourself? That's suicide!"

She laughed darkly. "Of course not, silly. You're going to help me. And so will the others. Unless you want to go forward with Plan B instead... ."

The man shuddered. "I don't know why you're letting them do that to you. There must be some way we can stop them!"

The girl looked away. "I don't have a choice. It's either me or her, and it has to be me. They won't give us the last piece we need for the cure device unless I cooperate." Her voice was quiet, but he could still hear the anguish behind her words, and it broke his heart.

"I know I should be the last person to say this, but are you sure revenge is worth it? You'll be destroying your own life!"

"It's not just about revenge anymore. I need to make sure they can't hurt anyone ever again, like they hurt my family. If destroying them means destroying myself, so be it."

She left after that. He knew she was most likely going to the hospital, and wouldn't be back for a few hours. So he sat down and began forming a plan of his own, to save the girl that had rescued him from HYDRA before she got herself killed, or worse.


	9. Chapter 8

"So please, tell me again what exactly you were doing in the alley?" Professor Xavier gave the girl in front of him a kind, knowing smile. She fidgeted nervously in her chair.

_ He won't read my mind without my permission, unless he thinks it's really serious… but what do I tell him? He'll either think I'm crazy or know that I'm lying, and I don't want to share my sister just yet. She's the only family I have now, they'll take that away from me if they find out the truth! _Sophie was frantically trying to think of a plausible solution for her dilemma, when suddenly she was saved by Scott contacting the Professor.

"You're going to want to see this. We just decrypted the flash drive, and we found something big."

The professor swiftly dismissed Sophie, promising to talk to her again shortly, and sent her to bed, as she thanked the heavens for getting her out of that sticky situation and wondering what she was going to tell Eva.

Charles quickly moved to the computer lab, where the other X-men were analyzing the data on the screens before them. "What do we have?"

Forge gestured to the main display in the center of the room. "It appears to be the plans for a biological weapon, one that they were going to manufacture and either sell to the highest bidder or use as a bargaining chip."

"What do you mean, were? They didn't succeed?"

Forge looked grim. "Unfortunately, no. The head technician at the lab was apparently an innocent civilian who caught wind of the true nature of the experiments, and HYDRA ordered him killed. However, the lab was destroyed in the process, and the virus was released."

He opened a new file on the display. "These appear to be cases of infections that this Vendetta character believes are caused by the virus. None of them really seem to stand out, except this one. A pregnant woman died shortly after giving birth, and her infant daughter appeared to show symptoms of the virus. According to other records, she's alive, but has been hospitalized for her entire life, due to a severely weakened immune system. The child's family appears to have covered up her illness for some reason, though, as there are no news reports about it."

Logan, who had entered the room sometime during the middle of the conversation, broke in. "Get to the point, Forge, we haven't got all day!"

Sighing, Forge looked at him sympathetically. "You're not going to like this."

"And why would that be?" Logan growled.

"Because the child's name is Amelia Sterling. She's Senator Sterling's granddaughter."

Logan's eyes widened. "You mean…?"

Scott's face darkened. "We think your friend Stella might be involved in this somehow. We have to find her."


	10. Chapter 9

Kite Sterling sat alone in his office several hours after closing hours. A few hours earlier he had received news that there wasn't much more that could be done for his daughter. The virus had wracked such a physical toll on her young body that it was rejecting most medications, and organ transplants were out of the question.

He was incredibly shaken. His mother had passed away when he was eighteen. His wife had died after contracting a mysterious virus that had also afflicted his daughter, who he was now in serious danger of losing. And to make matters even worse, his adopted sister, the one person he could truly confide in, had been acting increasingly erratic.

After their mother's death, Stella withdrew into herself even more, shutting out the world to focus on her creations. And she was brilliant, he had to admit. Tony Stark had even offered her an apprenticeship. But her personality seemed to have undergone a dramatic shift. She became paranoid, refusing to show Kite most of her work except for the ones she sold to Stark Industries. When she wasn't studying, she was building something. He couldn't recall the last time he had seen her just hanging out with friends. It was as if she was becoming obsessed with whatever she was making.

When Jessica had died and Amelia got sick, her behavior got even worse. She hardly ever came home anymore, preferring the solitude of her lab to the family mansion. She started drinking and spending time in shady places. Sometimes he didn't see her for months at a time. When he did, it was usually at the hospital when she came to visit Amelia.

He had seen her earlier that afternoon, when the doctor gave him the news. She had listened silently, not saying a single word for a long time. Her jaw was clenched and her eyes seemed to flash as she paced back and forth. Then she suddenly stopped.

_ "It's not too late, Kite. I can save her." Kite had stared at her in disbelief._

_ "What are you talking about? Doctor Cox just said there wasn't anything more we could do." _

_ "Maybe you can't. But I can. I've been working on something special for her. It's almost complete. We won't ever lose anyone ever again. Before Kite could ask her what _that _was supposed to mean, she quickly left, leaving Kite confused and extremely worried._

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Kite looked up, startled. The receptionist had left a few hours earlier, and the night-time janitor wouldn't arrive for another thirty minutes. He opened the door. A blue-furred man in a suit stood in front of him, along with a tall man with a red visor.

"I'm Hank McCoy and this is Scott Summers. We're from the Xavier Institute. We're here to talk to you about your sister. May we come in?"

Somehow, that really didn't surprise him.

* * *

Sophie went to bed early that night with a killer migraine. She had managed to avoid most of Eva's questions, and the teachers seemed to be too busy with something to ask her about her little adventure. Maybe if she laid low long enough they would forget about it.

Still, she couldn't forget what her sister had said. _"All will be revealed in time." _What was that supposed to mean? Why did she leave so quickly when the X-men were about to show up? And how did she even know that they would anyway? Maybe she really was a stalker.

She tossed and turned for what seemed like ages. The pounding in her head grew worse, and then the visions began.

_The woods were deep and dark. Branches and thorns snagged and scratched at her. Her lungs felt like they were about to give out, and she knew there was no escape._

_She stumbled over a rock and landed on her knees. She looked up to see three shadowy figures towering over her._

_"Please don't hurt me!" She begged, shrinking back._

_"Of course not, child. The Master would be very displeased if we were to do that. However... " He reached out and placed a gloved hand on her head.  
_

_She was frozen in fear, unable to move or run away. The other two strangers began chanting something that she couldn't quite understand. Her head started to spin, and there was a blinding light. Then she began to fall, down, down, down down...  
_

_"Take her to the city. She must not remember us until the time is right. Go." A deep, dark voice commanded, the last thing she heard as she fell into a dark abyss._

* * *

**_A/N:_ Sorry about the really late update, I had some serious writer's block on the second part, and then I got distracted... anyways, my new school year starts soon, so I don't really know how often I'll be able to update then, but I won't completely abandon it, I promise! :)**

**Also, I mean it when I say the weirdness is just getting started... ;P**


End file.
